Ayrshire Scotland Business News is provided by the Elite Ayrshire Business Circle, an association of some of the top companies in Ayrshire. We publicise our members, and celebrate and report the wealth and rich diversity of entrepreneurial and business excellence that abounds here in Ayrshire, south-west Scotland. For further information e-mail Murdoch@eliteayrshire.com

The Elite Ayrshire Business Circle

Wednesday, 10 December 2008

Top Ayrshire printing company Kestrel Press celebrates 35 successful years

A LEADING North Ayrshire company is bucking the current economic gloom by celebrating 35 years of successful trading.

Irvine-based printing company Kestrel Press was originally set up as a partnership in 1973, and was then incorporated in 1980.

Kestrel Press now operates from a prestigious modern 11,000 sq/ft office and factory on the South Newmoor Industrial Estate in Irvine.

From an initial base of commercial customers in the local and Glasgow area, Kestrel Press diversified into label and other production line printing.

Kestrel Press is now well established and enjoys a widespread reputation as bespoke quality colour and commercial printers and graphic designers.

Major clients over the years have included clothing manufacturers Levi Strauss & Co, Wrangler, Coats and pharmaceutical giant Glaxo SmithKline plc. Kestrel’s current customer base spreads across three sectors – local authorities, design agencies and direct with local businesses. The company supplies several of its customers with a stock holding facility to ensure continuous supply to multi-site operations.

Company policy is to meet or exceed its customers’ requirements all the time. This is summarised in the Kestrel Press motto “Putting our Promises in Print”. This policy has proved effective in securing an increasing level of new business whilst retaining a loyal customer base.

Kestrel Press is committed to continuous improvement in every area of its business and works closely with both customers and suppliers to ensure smooth operation of the supply chain. The company guarantees the quality of its products and services within a Total Quality Management system certified by BSi.

The company is conscious of and active in its responsibilities towards environmental management and health and safety regulations. Before it was fashionable, Kestrel Press was a “green” company, offering and using a range of recycled and FSC certified products.

“We have major customers in sectors as diverse as clothing and textiles, electronics, engineering, transport, food and drink, pharmaceuticals and local government.

“The traditional printing market has gone, and a company like ours now needs to be able to react quickly to a variety of customers who want printed products quicker and cheaper. However, they need to realise that we are a manufacturing industry, and everything is made to order. Service is key in managing this process and is an area where we are continually trying to improve.

“In response to our customers’ needs, we have enhanced the range of design and production capabilities. We operate an effective Just-in-Time system linking customer schedules through to paper suppliers. We achieve rapid on-time delivery through a combination of express carriers and our own vehicles.”

Not only set fair to weather the current economic downturn, Kestrel Press looks likely to be embarking on another 35 years of successful trading and dynamic expansion.

There are currently 412 Ayrshire business stories permanently archived on this site. To locate those of most interest to you, please use the site search facility in the top left hand corner of this page. Type your search term in the white box, then click “SEARCH BLOG”.

THE EDITORThe Editor of Ayrshire Scotland Business News is Murdoch MacDonald, a graduate of Magdalene College, Cambridge University, where his journalistic contemporaries included John Simpson, now World Affairs Editor with the BBC, and Alan Rusbridger, Editor of the Guardian. Murdoch MacDonald has been in the public relations industry and a freelance journalist and broadcaster for more than 35 years.He has handled the PR accounts of many top Scottish companies, including Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Life, John Menzies, Kwik-Fit and Barratt Homes.

He has hosted his own family finance programmes - "£s, Pence and Sense" on Radio Forth and "Moneywise" on Scottish Television.He now runs Ayrshire’s top PR consultancy Fame Publicity Services.

Wherever you are in the world, no other public relations consultancy, PR firm or publicity company can offer you a better or more cost-effective worldwide news distribution service, combined with search engine optimisation techniques that will drive customers and qualified sales leads to your company's website.

Murdoch MacDonald is also managing director of the Elite Ayrshire Business Circle, an association of some of the top companies in Ayrshire.Telephone: 01292 281498E-mail: Murdoch@eliteayrshire.com

Murdoch and his wife Lilian (pictured above) have written a book called "Phoenix in a Bottle", describing how they overcame alcoholism and are now, contrary to conventional wisdom, able to drink alcohol responsibly again. "Phoenix in a Bottle" is published by Melrose Books price £16.99 and is now available worldwide.Reviewing the book, eminent American addiction expert Dr Stanton Peele PhD commented:

“Phoenix in a Bottle is a modern version of The Days of Wine and Roses, and tells the true story of how two people who entered a period of desperate drinking stayed with one another in a close loving relationship, and emerged from their alcoholism able to drink responsibly again.

“Both a wonderful love story and a challenge to conventional wisdom about how people can recover from drinking problems, Phoenix in a Bottle gives people hope, and helps them to confront their own demons - alcohol or otherwise.”

And now "Phoenix in a Bottle" has been selected as a set text by a top American university.

“Phoenix in a Bottle” by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald will now be required reading for all doctoral students in a psychology programme at Alliant International University in San Diego, California.

Alliant International University, headquartered in San Diego and San Francisco, California, was formed in 2001 by the merger of the California School of Professional Psychology (CSPP) and the United States International University. Alliant has 6 campuses throughout California and also runs programmes in Mexico City, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant is one of the premier psychology schools in the US, and it counts roughly half the licensed clinical psychologists in California as its alumni.

Dr. Gary W. Lawson is Professor of Psychology at CSPP. He says: “I adopted Phoenix in a Bottle because the dilemma this couple struggled with and the questions they ask themselves are like so many others I have encountered in 35 years of clinical experience treating addictions.“However, nowhere in addiction literature have I seen these issues examined and explained as well as Lilian and Murdoch do in Phoenix in a Bottle.“I also recommend Phoenix in a Bottle to many of my patients as well.”

You can buy "Phoenix in a Bottle" by Lilian and Murdoch MacDonald online now direct from Amazon UK (click on book cover image below).